2006-08-15T14:01:00.000-07:00

St Francis Bay is very special because of its building restrictions.

The town has three distinct areas.

The centre of town only allows black tiled or thatched rooftops and white walls.

As the rooftop of choice is thatch, St Francis Bay has one of the world's largest accumulation of thatched dream homes.

The Spanish section consists of terra cotta walls and red roof tops, creating Spanish villa heaven on a hillside overlooking the ocean.

The country's only privately owned harbour is small but well developed, offering restaurants, bars, luxury accomodation and mooring facilities for both industrial fisheries and pleasure boat owners.

For visitors, a choice of commercial bay trips are on offer. The conservationist at heart can enjoy whale and dolphin spotting offering a truly amazing encounter with nature.

If a more personal encounter with nature is what you're after, hunting and fishing safaris are available too.

Another unique feature is the equestrian estate.

This top of the range town house complex offers a paddock to keep your horse attached to a beautiful black and white home, enclosed from public access with electrical fencing, to create the perfect picket fence mini town for horse lovers.

Horse owners can be seen galloping through town and on the beach, whilst road signs caution drivers to be tolerant of riders.

Two prime surfing spots are available.

Bruce's became legendary when the surf movie titled "The Endless Summer" portrayed it to have fantastic waves only for travellers to find swell galloping past to the coast of Jeffreys Bay.

Although Bruce's is illusive and does not break often, when it does, the lines are absolutely perfect and good barrels are formed on the rocky seabed.

This year, Bruces provided perfect waves two days after the August storm when everywhere else was a bit messy to ride.

Surfers had a great day with waves providing back to back rides for two to three surfers at any one time.

Hewlett's breaks just to the left of Bruces, providing a deep water left break just off the beach.